Some thoughts on the Cinelli BiValents that were sold last week, and those for sale by CR listmember this week. I don't have anything to say about $$ value, or much to say about the condition of these kits, but hope that my experience about the hubs themselves will be of interest to a few people.
1) The bivalents are neat, even though they are a pain-in-the-butt. For example, to true them you have to dismount the drop-out adapters (receivers) and mount them in the truing jig.
2) As most realize, front and rear are identical and interchangeable. FW attaches to a bearing attached to the frame, so it stays with the bike when you change a flat. FW has female splines, hub has male splines to mate. Mounted in front, the splines face left instead of right. Otherwise, the dished wheel gets offset.
3) The pix in the current sale (item 320243101833) are nice. Please let me draw your attention to picture 9, for a couple of details. First, notice that all four "corners" or "receivers" or "drop-out adapters" are different from each other. The little nut is for the right rear. The skewers mount on the left, and have only a single conical spring.
4) On the skewers, note the coarse thread for holding the assembly together. When this is released, the skewer pops out, but is held by a retainer. Then you can slip the wheel out. Now, notice the coarse thread again. On some, this is a double helix, and on others, it is a single helix. They do not interchange. Ah, but that is just one of the threadings on that poor little ole skewer piece. The lever goes on with a RH thread, but the little black cap locks it in place with a fine LH thread. That skewer has three sets of threads, at least one pair of flats, and some other funny details.
5) These shells are the one-piece design, which I believe is later than the 3-piece with steel barrel. Anyone know for sure?
Now, with all this new-found knowledge, you can look at last week's set (320243101833) and have a better sense of what a wild goose chase it might be to find and gather all the missing pieces from that auction's set of bivalents. But, I'd love to have those rims... That's probably much clearer than all the wordsmithing I tried to do last week.
In any event, I'm glad that I got some bivalents a couple of decades ago, in a trade. We all differ in our resources and our attitudes, but I don't think I'd pay the going market price for a set today. Hard to explain, but might lead to significant loss of marital capital. :-)
I enjoy riding the BiValents on my beat-up Cinelli, and enjoy showing them to folks. I'll bring them to Cirque. They're riders, and keepers.
harvey sachs
mcLean va. usa.